During the 2021/22 season, we noticed an increase in the amount of poor practice and verbal abuse cases in youth football.  

Whilst the vast majority of youth football takes place in a great environment, we have seen an increase in adults spoiling football for young people.  

So we asked our young players how they felt about their football experience, and what they said, was: "Let us play".  

Video credit: Robert Fox 

What that meant was, that whilst they love playing football and love getting cheered on doing something good, they didn’t enjoy getting shouted at by adults. 

We listened to this and on 10th September we're asking all parents, spectators and coaches to be seated at youth football in an attempt to stop the verbal abuse young players and referees experience at football.  

Positivity can have a huge impact on young people and it’s up to adults to be the best role models they can. We would love you to cheer both sides on, congratulate everyone for taking part, teach sportsmanship to our young players and most of all, help to keep our young players playing the beautiful game. But we ask that We Only Do Positive.  

Let's build our young players up, give them confidence, and remove verbal abuse from the game. We all saw how fantastic the environment was for female players during the Euros and what an amazing outcome too! But it all starts with the environment we create. 

Cambridgeshire FA wants our young people to have a voice and to be able to influence what THEIR environment looks like.  

The message was thank you for your support, but please don’t shout at us. Let us play...